Sidewalks

For this, their third album, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino set up shop in Atlanta with producer Ben Allen, best known for his work with Gnarls Barkley and animal collective. This album takes up where Grand left off, gradually snowballing layers of production and instrumentation on top off Matt and Kim's minimalist infrastructure. The bells and whistles of the second album are here joined by violins, trumpets and trombones. Matt and Kim have once again raised their own bar, adding additional instrumentation and moving in a slightly more experimental direction. Opening with 'Block after Block,' a sampled and repeated 'yeah!' along with hand claps give potential live audiences plenty to look forward to. If you do a google image search for Matt and Kim, you'll be hard pressed to find a photo without both of them grinning ear to ear. This is the same reaction they look for from their listeners with every song.